Little Sisters of the Poor Win Another Round Against Obamacare

This is an update to our Jan. 3 report that Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an emergency injunction against the Obama administration, ordering that it could not enforce Obamacare’s abortion pill mandate against a Catholic nuns’ charity until the Supreme Court decided how to proceed.

On Friday, Jan. 24, the Court issued an order that if the Little Sisters of the Poor inform Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that it is a religious organization with a religious objection to contraception (not a heavy lift for Catholic nuns to make that case), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is barred from enforcing the regulation against the group.

The Court cautioned, however, “The Court issued this order based on all of the circumstances of the case, and this order should not be construed as an expression of the Court’s views on the merits.”

The case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. That Denver-based appeals court could now put the case on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision on the merits of the two upcoming abortion pill mandate cases, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga, which the Supreme Court will hear Mar. 25. A decision in those cases is expected in June.